Don’t worry. Bad news is a fact of life in BPO and IT outsourcing projects.
Deal economics may go south, assumptions may prove to be incorrect, key stakeholders are dissatisfied etc.
Therefore, knowing how to handle bad news is a vital skill.
Some folks stick their head in the sand hoping the bad news will disappear by itself. Others decide to sweep the issue under the carpet.
What might be more successful in dealing with bad news?
1. Speed: face the issue and report to your stakeholders as soon as possible
2. Ownership: take responsibility for the issue, even if you did not create it
3. Decisiveness: suggest solutions
Why speed?
Firstly, bad news, if not addressed quickly, may become worse news. The situation may deteriorate while you do not address the root cause of the issue.
Let’s assume, your project has a budget overrun due to poor financial management by your inexperienced direct reports. You did not pay enough attention since you trusted them and you were busy with other important matters.
You may think now is not a good time to report this overrun to your superior. She is in a bad mood because the client was unhappy this week. So you prefer to sit and wait until the numbers look better again. Your team informed you last week a financial upside might come shortly.
Well, how likely is it that the overrun may be offset by this upside before your superior does a monthly review of the financials? And plugging holes is not what is expected of you. Your superior may have learned about the upside as well and may have already baked it into her projections.
Furthermore, not facing the issue head-on and sweeping it under the carpet may soon become a CLM (career limiting move).
It is better you break the news rather than your superior creating her own narrative. It allows you to explain the extenuating circumstances in which the issue appeared. You were busy with priorities she set, right? And you empowered your team to manage their financials independently, correct?
Finally, there may still be an opportunity to resolve the situation if you tackle the bad news rapidly. If you wait too long that window of opportunity may close. Cost, once incurred, is difficult to recover.
Not too hasty…
When dealing with complex bad news I’d recommend thinking through carefully how you would want to break the news. Managers are busy people and they prefer to be brought up to speed in a concise and coherent way, including with sound advice and solution alternatives.
So you might want to consider an approach like this: “Hey [manager X], I found out today there is an issue with the financials of the knowledge transfer phase. We are 300k over budget. I am analyzing the details now with the transition lead and team and we will give you an update with mitigation scenarios by tomorrow 2 PM”.
Why taking ownership? It was not me…
You are a team player, right? So no matter who caused an issue, the team as a whole should solve the problem. Taking ownership and driving the situation to resolution will get you kudos. You are seen as a true professional and team player. Managers can rely on you.
Why offering solutions?
Managers are typically busy and somewhat impatient. They have enough problems already themselves and will not be particularly enthusiastic to learn of another issue.
Therefore, when a new issue arises and you report about it, it is advisable to offer multiple potential solutions: for example A, B and C. Detail the pros and cons of each alternative and recommend the best alternative in your opinion, explaining the rationale.
Again, such an approach will get you kudos.
Extras
An extreme form of poor bad news handling can be watched in the movie “11:14”.
Ten “commandments” about handling bad news can be found here.
I’d argue that commandments 9 (no delay), 8 (no hiding) and 4 (bring solutions) are key. Commandment 10 is not relevant for our context as we argue that bad news should be reported as soon as possible, whereas this deals with “impending” bad news.
A short but interesting read about bad news handling by Harvard Business Review can be found here.
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